Infant found living in squalor under Yolo County overpass, parents arrested
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The Yolo County parents of a 7-day-old infant found living in squalor in a tent under an overpass have pleaded not guilty to the child endangerment charges against them, records show.
On Sept. 9, deputies got a tip that a couple was living with a newborn baby under an Interstate 5 overpass, the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. During an investigation, the sheriff’s office found the family living in a tent and discovered what appeared to be multiple pipes for smoking methamphetamine, accumulated trash, rotten food, vomit on a mattress and feces inside a baby carrier. They also found the mother’s placenta and umbilical cord in a trash bag, according to the sheriff’s office.
The parents, Melissa Rivera, 29, and Fernando Esparza Guzman, 48, “acknowledged the dangers posed to their newborn,” and said they had been waiting to take the infant to a hospital sometime later, the sheriff’s office said.
Emergency responders took the baby to Woodland Memorial Hospital, then to a Sacramento County neonatal intensive care unit, the Sheriff’s Office said. The infant is now under protective custody.
Rivera and Guzman were arrested and have both been charged with child abuse under conditions likely to cause serious hardship or death, according to the criminal complaint filed against them in Yolo County Superior Court. Guzman was also charged with possessing a device for using, injecting or ingesting drugs, according to the complaint.
The couple were arraigned Wednesday and released. Rivera was also arraigned that day on an outstanding battery charge from earlier this year and pleaded not guilty, court records show. Rivera and Guzman’s next court hearing on the child endangerment case is Oct. 13.
Yolo County Child Welfare Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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